Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2015/842 of 28 May 2015 on the clearance of the accounts of the paying agencies of Member States concerning expenditure financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for the 2014 financial year (notified under document C(2015) 3519)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 352/78, (EC) No 165/94, (EC) No 2799/98, (EC) No 814/2000, (EC) No 1290/2005 and (EC) No 485/2008^f1, and in particular Articles 51 and 54(5) thereof,

After consulting the Committee on the Agricultural Funds,

Whereas:

Pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the Commission, on the basis of the annual accounts submitted by the Member States, accompanied by the information required for the clearance of accounts and an audit opinion regarding the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the accounts and the reports established by the certification bodies, has to clear the accounts of the paying agencies referred to in Article 7 of that Regulation.

In accordance with Article 39 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 the agricultural financial year begins on 16 October of year N – 1 and ends on 15 October of year N. When clearing the accounts for the 2014 financial year, for the purpose of aligning the reference period for European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) expenditure with that of the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), account should be taken of expenditure incurred by the Member States between 16 October 2013 and 15 October 2014, as provided for in Article 11(1) of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014^f2.

The second subparagraph of Article 33(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 provides that the amounts that are recoverable from, or payable to, each Member State, in accordance with the accounts clearance decision referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 33(1) of that Regulation, are to be established by deducting the intermediate payments for the financial year concerned from the expenditure recognised for that year in accordance with Article 33(1). The Commission is to deduct that amount from or add it to the next intermediate payment.

The Commission has checked the information submitted by the Member States and has communicated the results of its checks to the Member States before 30 April 2015, along with the necessary amendments.

For certain paying agencies, the annual accounts and the accompanying documents permit the Commission to take a decision on the completeness, accuracy and veracity of the annual accounts submitted.

The information submitted by certain other paying agencies requires additional enquiries and their accounts cannot therefore be cleared in this Decision.

In accordance with Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the Commission may reduce or temporarily suspend interim payments to the Member States. It should inform the Member State(s) concerned accordingly. In adopting this Decision, the Commission should take into account the amounts reduced or suspended in order to avoid making any inappropriate or untimely payments, or reimbursing amounts that could later be subject to financial correction. In particular, the fourth quarterly declaration for 2013 and the first quarterly declaration for 2014 included respectively the amounts of EUR 51 543 and EUR 26 892 for the rural development programme of the region of Lazio, Italy (programme CCI 2007IT06RPO005). These amounts were also included in the annual declaration for financial year 2014. The amounts in question were subject to a reduction under Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, as ordered by Commission Implementing Decisions C(2014)3268 and C(2014)5156 for failure to comply with the time limits for mandatory verification. Since the procedure provided for in Article 34 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 is still ongoing, these reductions should be maintained. As regards the rural development programme for Bulgaria (CCI 2007BG06RPO001), the amounts of EUR 420 467,77 and EUR 598 402,41 were declared in the third quarter of 2014 under measures 311 and 312 respectively. These amounts were also declared in the annual declaration for financial year 2014. The amounts in question should be excluded from Union financing by this Decision since account should be taken of any reduction in accordance with Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. Any reduction is in fact of a provisional nature and is without prejudice to decisions to be taken pursuant to Article 52 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013.

Pursuant to Article 54(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, 50 % of the financial consequences of non-recovery of irregularities is to be borne by the Member State concerned if recovery has not taken place within four years from the date of the recovery request, or within eight years where the recovery is taken before the national courts. Article 54(4) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 requires Member States to enter in the annual accounts the amounts to be borne by them under paragraph 2 of that Article. Rules on the application of the Member States' obligation to report the amounts to be recovered are laid down in Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014. Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 sets out the model of the table that Member States have to use to provide information about amounts to be recovered in 2015. On the basis of the tables completed by the Member States, the Commission should decide on the financial consequences of non-recovery of irregularities older than four or eight years respectively.

Pursuant to Article 54(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, on duly justified grounds, Member States may decide not to pursue recovery. Such a decision may be taken only if the costs already and likely to be incurred, total more than the amount to be recovered or if the recovery proves impossible owing to the insolvency, recorded and recognised under national law, of the debtor or the persons legally responsible for the irregularity. If the decision has been taken within four years from the date of the recovery request, or within eight years where the recovery is taken before the national courts, 100 % of the financial consequences of the non-recovery should be borne by the Union budget. The amounts for which a particular Member State decided not to pursue recovery and the grounds for its decision are to be included in the annual accounts as per Article 29(e) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014, referred to in point (c)(iii) of Article 102(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. Therefore, such amounts should not be charged to the Member States concerned and are consequently to be borne by the Union budget.

Pursuant to Article 34(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, the combined total of prefinancing and interim payments are not to exceed 95 % of the EAFRD's contribution to each rural development programme. The following programmes have reached this threshold: 2007AT06RPO001, 2007BE06RPO001, 2007DE06RPO004, 2007DE06RPO010, 2007IE06RPO001 and 2007UK06RPO003. The outstanding balance on these programmes will be settled at the closure of the programming period.

Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 repealed and replaced Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005^f3. Article 26(3)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005, which corresponds to the provision of Article 36(3)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, provided that intermediate payments are to be made without overrun of the total financial programmed EAFRD contribution. Furthermore, Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014 took over some of the provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No 883/2006^f4 which had been repealed by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 907/2014^f5. Article 17(4) of Regulation (EC) No 883/2006, which corresponds to the provision of Article 23(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 908/2014, provided that where the combined total of declarations of expenditure exceeds the total programmed contribution for a rural development programme, the amount to be paid shall be capped at the programmed amount, without prejudice to the ceiling provided for in Article 24(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 which corresponds to the provision of Article 34(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013. The financial plan for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007EE06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 1 122 778,99 in the second and third quarterly declarations for 2014. The financial plan for Axis 5 for the rural development programme 2007ES06RPO009 was exceeded by EUR 18 560,56 in the third quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plan for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007FI06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 5 599 314,3 in the second quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plans for Axis 2 for the rural development programme 2007LU06RPO001 was exceeded by EUR 169 459,49 in the third quarterly declaration for 2014. The financial plans for Axis 2 and Axis 5 for the rural development programme 2007UK06RPO002 were exceeded by EUR 2 597 538,87 and EUR 427 086,47 respectively in the second and third quarterly declarations for 2014. The above amounts were not paid out by the Commission. The amended financial plans have not been adopted by the Commission until the date of adoption of this Decision. The amounts totalling EUR 9 934 738,68 which are included in the annual declarations for the 2014 financial year should therefore be excluded from the financial clearance decision for the 2014 financial year. They will be subject to a later reimbursement by the Commission following the adoptions of the amended financial plans or at the closure of the programming period.

In accordance with Article 36(3)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, an amount of EUR 913 212,81 declared for the rural development programme 2007PT06RPO001 was excluded from the clearance Decision for 2013 financial year. Following the adoption of the amended financial plan, that amount was reimbursed by the Commission in 2014 and it should therefore be included in the present clearance decision.

In accordance with Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013, this Decision is without prejudice to the decisions the Commission may take subsequently to exclude from Union financing expenditure not effected in accordance with Union rules,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: